USAID is working with the Government of Vietnam, non-governmental organizations and private sector partners to implement and strengthen the innovative Payment for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) system.

On January 31, USAID’s Green Annamites project and the Vietnam Forest Protection and Development Fund consulted with more than 60 diverse stakeholders on approaches for implementing Vietnam’s recently enacted Forestry Law, which requires large emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to pay fees for the carbon sequestration services provided by Vietnam's forests. Healthy forests sequester carbon when they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere via photosynthesis and store the carbon as biomass. While implementation challenges were identified, participants agreed that the new PFES fee structure is an excellent opportunity to mobilize domestic resources for expanded and strengthened forest protection.

So What? USAID is supporting Vietnam’s effort to implement a groundbreaking policy approach that will expand domestic resource mobilization, collecting fees from coal-fired power plants to fund forest protection - a first in Asia.